What began as a record of everything I read for one year quickly turned into a place to connect with other book lovers over our shared passion. I'm so glad that I discovered the book blogging world! Please visit as often as you like, and feel free to chime in with your opinions any time.

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Who AM I?

That's a good question ... I'm a daughter, a wife, a mother, a sister, a friend ... and there's so much more! But for the purpose of this blog I am a first and foremost a reader.

When I was in the first grade I read The Hobbit and my love of Fantasy took root. By the time I left elementary school I had completed the entire series as well as The Belgariad by David Eddings. Seventh grade brought me the beginning of Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time series ... which is still not complete. High school and college introduced me to the classics and to history. My reading disappeared for several years when I had a child. Then I started a book club and it came back in full force.

Today I read anything that catches my eye ... at the moment that includes historical fiction, fantasy, literary fiction, and any titles I find interesting. I'm always on the lookout for the next great find ... any suggestions?

BBAW '09: Winner of Best History/Historical Fiction Blog

Thursday, December 3, 2009

Greatest Discoveries: Explorations That Changed History

This is a gorgeous, photo-filled book from TIME Magazine's Great Books series. It includes brief articles on a wide variety of discoveries - ranging from archaeological to astronomical and including everything in between - that have each changed the way we view history. Most of the stories are one to two pages long and all are accompanied by amazing photos.

*** Why I Read It ***

I used to read National Geographic magazines and loved all the knowledge I gleaned from them and the amazing photos they contained. When I saw this book on the magazine rack at the grocery store I immediately thought of those NatGeos that I loved. And since I was really in the mood for something completely different to read, I picked it up along with my groceries.

Note: My copy of this book is the paperback version and has a different cover than the one pictures here; I simply couldn't find any image that matched my copy.

*** My Thoughts ***

I found most of these essays to be fascinating. About half of the stories pertained to discoveries I was not familiar with at all. Some of these include the images of volcanic activity on one of Jupiter's moons, the recent feathered dinosaur discoveries in China, and the Anglo-Saxon burial site at Sutton Hoo (yes, I know, everyone else seems to know about these ... but I was clueless).

Many articles were on topics I knew something about (like the "hobbit" skeletons of Indonesia, the concept of "bog people", and Shackleton's Antarctic expedition) but even those contained info that was new to me. For example, did you know the latest theory explaining the sinking of the Titanic has to do with the poor quality metal used in the rivets? That was news to me.

My only complaint is that I would have liked more detail on many of these topics. Of course, the purpose of the book was simply to make the reader aware of these discoveries, not to delve into them in any detail. But for me, a few more pages on some of these topics would have made this perfect.

Still, it was exactly what I needed to read at that moment - something interesting and educational, fun and entertaining, and completely unrelated to any reading challenge or deadline. :)

*** Your Thoughts ***

Have you read this or any other book in the TIME Great Books series? If so, what do you like/dislike about them? Are you a fan of National Geographic Magazine like me?

6 comments:

I haven't read any of the Time Great books, but I love National Geographic Magazines. I have stacks of them under my bed that I need to clean out. :) Usually once a week or so I take a National Geographic magazine and a Smithsonian magazine with me while I take a bubble bath (and my husband watches the kids). It's nice to get some reading in that is not book related, and also easy to finish quickly. Not to mention I love the educational aspect.

I haven't read any of the books, but I do like National Geographic. I haven't been a consistent reader-doctors' offices here and there-but, they seem to be one of the few "serious" magazines that have maintained their standards and not dumbed things down for their readers over the years.